The Community Nerd: Do I Need a Community? What's the value?

Hello again, Stranger. You look awfully deep in thought over there. How's it going? What's new? I've spent the first half of the week ping-ponging between this and that. Lots of moving and shaking going on over here.

I find a lot of times when I talk to someone and tell them about my community work, they often get the glint in their eye of a brilliant idea forming. And sure enough, awhile later they exclaim, "Maybe my company/initiative/organization needs a community too!"

And while I'll almost never disagree with that statement, I find that it is super important to harness that newfound enthusiasm and ask yourself a super important question:

What value does a community offer to both my organization and members?

And, Stranger - that question is absolutely not meant to be a deterrent. I can see I've accidentally exterminated a little bit of the fire in your eyes. That question is meant to be the catalyst for something incredible. Something collaborative. Something culture changing. So let's dig in.

When I was a kid, I loved this book called When You Give a Moose a Muffin. The premise of the book is that every time the moose gets something he wants, the moose decides he needs something more to be satisfied. And this happens over and over until the moose is happy with what he's attained. And building out the basis for what will end up becoming a community strategy is a lot like satisfying the moose.

First comes identifying your needs - but think of this initially from a company/initiative/organization perspective. Why does your organization need a community?

When I think about this question, I often like to focus on answering questions such as:

What organizational objective(s) will a community impact or satisfy?

What are some pain points I'd really like to improve or eliminate?

Where could we be more efficient or effective?

Next comes thinking about your audience's needs. Try to hone in on 3-5 personas (user types) and put yourself in their shoes. What does your audience need from a community?

Just like the business side, I find it's helpful to dig really deep again. (Satisfy that moose!)

What does our audience want?

What feedback have we already heard from our audience?

What does the perfect audience experience look like?

Now, put those two lists next to each other. While the words and statements might look a little different, try to find places where the two lists overlap. Highlight it. Circle it. Draw stars and fireworks around it. Do whatever you need to because these mutually shared "needs" are magic. Moose satisfying magic!

You're looking at me like I'm crazy, Stranger. Not crazy. Just a little over enthusiastic about communities (and moose - I am from NH after all). I'll try to tone down the arm waving and wild hand gestures. But for reals, these shared needs are what us community professionals like to call shared value. And you cannot have a successful community without fully comprehending shared value.

Why?

Well, if you were to look at all the communities out there and hone in on the ones that didn't work out, you'd find that they usually fall into one of two buckets.

Bucket 1: The community was built around what the organization wanted and completely missed the mark for the customer. A really excellent example of this would be a community for a product that only focuses on getting customers to share positive experiences, but doesn't provide any customer support. Result: Customers avoid it like the plague because it doesn't do anything for them when they need it most.

Bucket 2: The community was built with just the customer's wants and needs at the focus. It lets the customer drive the experience from start to finish. These are less common, but they tend to be really obvious when you come across a community that has a no-man's land ambiance - harassment, spam, competitors advertising. Result: Organization gets no value from it and therefore makes no investment, further cementing the no-man's land feeling.

I hope it's obvious, but Bucket 1 and Bucket 2 didn't bother to do their shared value homework. And they're paying for it now (unsatisfied moose!).

But Stranger, I can tell you will do your homework. Think on it and tell me about your (existing/future/theoretical) community's shared value - or the organizational and member value you're thinking about.

(For reals. Comment below!)